5.22.2011

I need you to stay here and help me shop.

The other day, one of my managers was basically held hostage by a woman and her teenage daughter.

Helping people shop is one of my favorite parts of working retail, but sometimes people are just excessively needy. You have to understand that employees all have things they are supposed to be doing, and this is especially true for managers.

Yes, our number one priority is always helping customers. So if you have a question or need help finding something, I will drop what I'm doing to help you. (Unless what I'm doing is helping another customer.)

But it is ridiculous for you to expect me to spend an hour helping you. That's something that happens at boutiques. We are a mall store.

But if they were pleasant people, it wouldn't be as big of a deal. The worst part of the whole thing was the fact that the mom was just an obnoxious person.

Here's an excerpt of the conversation, just to give you an example.

The daughter: "I wanna wear this shirt out, is that okay?"
My manager: "Yeah, that's fine, you can just rip the tag off and have them scan it."
The mom: "Well we're going to need some scissors."
My manager: "Oh okay, there are some up there at the register, so you can just ask them."
The daughter: "It's okay, I can just rip it off, it's not a big deal."
The mom: "Oh NO, don't do THAT, you'll rip a hole right in that shirt the first time you wear it!"
The daughter: "Mom, it's fine, it won't rip a hole in the shirt."
The mom: "Trust me, I've ripped too many shirts that way."
The daughter: "Oh my gosh mom, it's not a big deal."
The mom: "Yes it is, you're going to rip the shirt."
My manager: "I'm sure it'll be fine, that's what I always do."
The mom: "NO! You're GOING to rip the shirt."

At that point, the three of us (me, the manager and the daughter) had started rolling our eyes at each other. Like, really? Get over it! It's SO not a big deal at all. And if you rip your shirts by ripping tags off, you're doing it wrong.